Archive for November 2010

I visited today with Justin Bere of Bere Architects http://www.bere.co.uk/. The house is pretty much sealed now, save the front door. Most of the plastering has been completed, the outside rendering on the external insulation looks bright and white. The front room at the top now feels noticeably smaller now the internal insulation is complete.

Plasterer agreed that lime plaster can be brittle and damaged easily, due to the slow drying process risk of damage must be higher, can be dented for several days.
Justin pointed out that external brickwork being visible is not a good reason for planners to deny the use of external insulation, especially if the area already has homes that have painted brick or rendered brick on the front facade already.
In the “plant room”, the Maico MVHR system looks big with silencers, heat exchanger and heater battery all helping to fill up the space. The Rotex unit is placed but not plumbed in yet, also looks big.

Project overview

This project is one of the winners of Retrofit for the Future, a competition launched in 2009 by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), a UK public body that promotes technology innovation. Retrofit for the Future is a competition to cut carbon emissions in social housing, looking for integrated solutions rather than the use of single technologies.
The house is located in Hawthorn Road, in the London Borough of Haringey. The existing house is divided into two separate flats, which will be combined into a single 3 bedrooms house.
For more details see pages below.